Trust Accounting Limited to Statutory Laches Period

Doris Corya appealed the order of a Florida trial court to complete accountings on four trusts that she was trustee of for all years that she had failed to do so. Corya had been trustee for all four trusts since their creation and had not provided the beneficiary with any reports.

In Corya v. Sanders, a Florida Appeals court reversed the lower court holding that the trustee could only be held liable for the missing reports for the length of time that Florida’s statutory laches would apply, in this case four years. Thus, Corya will only have to go back through records and report accountings on the four trust for the past four years and not all trust years, which could have gone back as far as 61 years when the first of the four trusts was created.

See Charles Rubin, Laches as a Limit on the Duty of a Trustee to Account, Rubin on Tax, Nov. 13, 2014.